Generally, refrigerators are used to store food in a low-temperature and fresh state for a prolonged period of time. Such a refrigerator stores in a frozen or refrigerated state in accordance with the state or kind of the food.
In order to store food in a low-temperature state, the refrigerator includes a refrigerant system which repeatedly performs a refrigerant cycle of compression-condensation-expansion-evaporation.
Hereinafter, a conventional refrigerator will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional refrigerator includes a refrigerator body 10 which includes a refrigerating compartment 20 for storing food in a refrigerated state, and a freezing compartment 30 for storing food in a frozen state.
The refrigerating compartment 20 and freezing compartment 30 are partitioned such that they have independent spaces, respectively. Each of the refrigerating compartment 20 and freezing compartment 30 is provided with an opening at the front side thereof.
The opening of the refrigerating compartment 20 is opened or closed by refrigerating compartment doors 22. The opening of the freezing compartment 30 is opened or closed by a freezing compartment door 32.
Generally, the refrigerating compartment 20 is more frequently used than the freezing compartment 30. To this end, the refrigerating compartment 20 is arranged over the freezing compartment 30 so as to enable the user to easily take out the food stored in the refrigerating compartment 20 without bending his body.
Drawers, baskets, and shelves for receiving food of various sizes and states are provided in the interior of the refrigerating compartment 20 and at the refrigerating compartment doors 22.
The freezing compartment door 32 is slidable in forward and rearward directions to open or close the freezing compartment 30. A lower door handle is attached to the front surface of the freezing compartment door 32 at the upper portion of the freezing compartment door 32, to enable the user to slide the freezing compartment door 32 while grasping the lower door handle.
An ice maker 40 is arranged in the freezing compartment 30, in order to make ice using cold air generated by a heat exchanger and supplied to the freezing compartment 30.
However, the conventional refrigerator having the above-mentioned configuration has various problems.
First, there is a problem in that the ice maker 40, which makes ice, is arranged in the interior of the freezing compartment 30, and the freezing compartment 30 is arranged beneath the refrigerating compartment 20 in the conventional refrigerator having the above-mentioned configuration. That is, it is inconvenient for the user to take ice out of the ice maker 40 because the user must operate the ice maker 40 after opening the freezing compartment door 32 while bending his body.
The above-mentioned problem may be solved by arranging the freezing compartment 30 over the refrigerating compartment 20. In this case, however, it is difficult for a short man or a child to take ice out of the ice maker 40 arranged in the interior of the freezing compartment 30, after opening the freezing compartment 30, in the case in which the refrigerator has a large size.
Meanwhile, the ice maker 40 may be installed at an appropriate position outside the freezing compartment 30, separately from the freezing compartment 30. In this case, however, there are various problems, for example, an increase in the manufacturing costs of the refrigerator, an increase in the volume of the refrigerator, and a difficulty in the manufacture of the refrigerator, because an ice-making heat exchanger must be installed in the ice making compartment.
For the above-mentioned reasons, it is required to develop a refrigerator which enables the user to easily take ice out of an ice maker without causing a variation in the capacity of the refrigerator or a limitation on the position of a freezing compartment.